PILGRIMS TO JUGGERNATH. 11 
were plenty for a stranger; chiefly pilgrims to Juggernath, most on 
foot, and a few in carts or fancy gigs of rude construction. The vehicles 
from the upper country are distinguished by a far superior build, their 
horses are caparisoned with jingling bells, and the wheels and other 
parts bound with brass. Occasionally some rich merchant or Baboo 
would jolt by, squatted in a gaily ornamented machine, ostentatiously 
reading a book, and followed by more wives and olive-branches than 
are quite allowable: more arrows in his quiver than will be blessed. 
The kindness of the people for animals, and in some cases for their 
suffering "relations, is very remarkable. A child cairyiug a bird, kid, 
orlamb, is not an uncommon sight, and a woman with a dog in her 
arms still more frequent. Occasionally, too, a groupe will bear an old 
man to see Juggernath before he dies, or a poor creature with elephan- 
tiasis, who hopes to be allowed to hurry himself to his paradise, in 
preference to lingering in helpless inactivity, and at last erawling 
up to the second heaven only. e costumes are as various as the 
religious castes, and the many countries to which the travellers or 
pilgrims belong, and the various moneys each traveller possesses. Next 
to the wealthy merchants, the most thriving-looking wanderer is the 
bearer of Ganges holy water, who drives a profitable trade, his profits 
increasing as he distances the river, and as his load lightens too. 
These people carry, generally, two large earthenware jars, one at each 
end of a bamboo across the shoulder, the jars ornamented with little 
banners of red rag. 
The roads here are all mended with a curious stone, called Kunker, 
which is a nodular deposit of limestone of unexplained origin, which 
occurs abundantly imbedded in the alluvial soil of a great part of 
India. It resembles a coarse large gravel in size, but each pebble is 
of the size of a wallnut, largcr or smaller, and tuberculated on the sur- 
face: it binds admirably, and forms excellent roads, but pulverises 
into a most disagreeable impalpable dust. 
Of merchandise we passed very little, the Ganges being still the high 
road between North West India and Bengal. Occasionally a string of 
camels was seen, but these are rare, east of the Soane river. A little 
eotton, clumsily packed in ragged bags, dirty and deteriorating every 
day, even at this dry season, proves how bad the article must arrive 
at the market during the rains, when the low waggons are dragged 
through the now empty streams. 
c 2 
